Lufthansa Technik, the MRO subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, announced that it had won a technical assistance and engineering contract to turn an Airbus A380 passenger into a cargo plane. The client was not mentioned.
It is not a P2F (Passenger-to-Freighter) conversion. This process would take at least three to four years and would be extremely expensive. The conversion we are talking about in the title refers to obtaining a certificate - Supplemental Type Certificates (STC). Thus, the Airbus A380 will be able to transport goods in the cabin.
The MRO subsidiary of the Lufthansa group announces that it has received requests from over 40 airlines, with more than fifteen projects being carried out on various platforms.
Including Lufthansa has temporarily converted 4 Airbus A330-300 aircraft for cargo transport. The auxiliary cargo planes were recently named "Preighter".
Airbus already offers standardized kits for the A330 and A350, which can be installed by the technical divisions of the airlines. Once economy class seats are removed, airlines are able to install cargo pallets directly on the seat rails on the cockpit floor.